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I had looked at this before. I'm not nearly as excited about this as this guy is. This isn't ' moleculr fabrication ' keep in mind. It's machine tool computer control , basically shop class the internet. Very vague overall ( the whole thing still is really ) ( )

I had looked at this before. I'm not nearly as excited about this as this guy is. This isn't ' moleculr fabrication ' keep in mind. It's machine tool computer control , basically shop class the internet. Very vague overall ( the whole thing still is really ) ( )

Gershenfeld, who runs MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, foresees a time when computers will upgrade from PCs to PFs, or personal fabricators. This eye-opening survey of "fab labs" completes the progression in Gershenfeld's earlier studies of the overlapping of computer science and physical science, such as When Things Start to Think (1999).

I can't wait for the era of personal fabricators -that is the topic that this book is about- to dawn. The subtitle of this book summarizes this book nicely: "The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication". Yet, I feel anyone who decides to read this must be forewarned: it will drive you crazy that this technology isn't readily available right now. Imagine a device that enables you to download and print out 3d items just as you download software and print out pages now. That's what this book is all about. In the future, people will manufacture their own goods and we really will have mass customization. If this interests you, I recommend that you read this amazing book! ( )

Wikipedia in English (2)

What if you could someday put the manufacturing power of an automobile plant on your desktop? It may sound far-fetched-but then, thirty years ago, the notion of personal computers” in every home sounded like science fiction. According to Neil Gershenfeld, the renowned MIT scientist and inventor, the next big thing is personal fabrication-the ability to design and produce your own products, in your own home, with a machine that combines consumer electronics with industrial tools. Personal fabricators (PF’s) are about to revolutionize the world just as personal computers did a generation ago. PF’s will bring the programmability of the digital world to the rest of the world, by being able to make almost anything-including new personal fabricators. In FAB, Gershenfeld describes how personal fabrication is possible today, and how it is meeting local needs with locally developed solutions. He and his colleagues have created fab labs” around the world, which, in his words, can be interpreted to mean a lab for fabrication, or simply a fabulous laboratory.” Using the machines in one of these labs, children in inner-city Boston have made saleable jewelry from scrap material. Villagers in India used their lab to develop devices for monitoring food safety and agricultural engine efficiency. Herders in the Lyngen Alps of northern Norway are developing wireless networks and animal tags so that their data can be as nomadic as their animals. And students at MIT have made everything from a defensive dress that protects its wearer’s personal space to an alarm clock that must be wrestled into silence. These experiments are the vanguard of a new science and a new era-an era of post-digital literacy” in which we will be as familiar with digital fabrication as we are with the of information processing. In this groundbreaking book, the scientist pioneering the revolution in personal fabrication reveals exactly what is being done, and how. The technology of FAB will allow people to create the objects they desire, and the kind of world they want to live in.

"According to Neil Gershenfeld, the next big thing is personal fabrication - the ability to design and produce your own products, in your own home, with a machine that combines consumer electronics and industrial tools. Personal fabricators (PF's) are about to revolutionize the world just as personal computers did a generation ago. PF's will bring the programmability of the digital world to the rest of the world, by being able to make almost anything - including new personal fabricators." "In Fab, Gershenfeld describes how personal fabrication is possible today, and how it is being used to meet local needs with locally developed solutions. He and his colleagues have created "fab labs" around the world, which, in his words, can mean "a lab for fabrication, or simply a fabulous laboratory." Using the machines in one of these labs, children in inner-city Boston have made saleable jewelry from scrap material. Villagers in India used their lab to develop devices for monitoring food safety and agricultural engine efficiency. Herders in the Lyngen Alps of northern Norway are developing wireless networks and animal tags so that their data can be as nomadic as their animals. And students at MIT have made everything from a defensive dress that protects its wearer's personal space to an alarm clock that must be wrestled into silence."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)